Oct. 29-- Oct. 29--Another two fires that sparked during a chaotic week in Northern California may be linked to Pacific Gas and Electric Co. equipment, according to two electrical incident reports issued by the company and released Monday by state regulators.
Two fires Sunday in Lafayette along Highway 24 started in the same location and at the same general time as two PG electrical malfunctions, according to the reports sent to the California Public Utilities Commission.
Andy Vesey, one of PG's top executives, told reporters Monday that the company filed a similar regulatory report regarding a fire in Milpitas.
But it was not available alongside the Lafayette reports posted on the utilities commission's website as of early Monday evening. The commission did not provide the report after The Chronicle inquired about it earlier in the day.
A roughly 7-acre fire burned near Camino Diablo and Springbrook Road north of Highway 24 on the eastern side of Lafayette. Residents on the north and south sides of the freeway east of Pleasant Hill Road were ordered to evacuate at the time.
The fire broke out after 2 p.m., badly damaging the main building and destroying two outbuildings at the Lafayette Tennis Club on Camino Diablo, said Capt. George Laing, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District. The fire also damaged the roof and chimney of a home, Laing said.
At about 5:50 p.m. Sunday, a PG worker known as a troubleman responded to the scene and observed a fallen pole and transformer, according to the report.
"Contra Costa Fire Department personnel on site communicated to the troubleman that they were looking at the transformer as a potential ignition source," PG said in its report.
A Lafayette police officer told The Chronicle that shortly after he arrived to the fire he saw a downed power pole and distribution lines and that, from there, a fire spread to Highway 24. The wooden pole appeared new and was broken at its base.
Moments later Sunday, a fire broke out on the other side of Highway 24 at Pleasant Hill and Condit roads. A PG troubleman reported to the location and found that the lashing wire of a communication cable near a "PG open wire secondary conductor was broken."
"Contra Costa Fire Department personnel on site communicated to the troubleman that they were looking into contact between the communication lashing wire and PG open wire secondary as a potential ignition source," PG reported. "No wires down were reported at the location."
Both incidents occurred on the utility's Rossmoor 1104 distribution line, according to the reports.
The utility said both incidents occurred in low-fire-threat districts. Power was not shut down in those areas by the utility, although PG proactively cut electricity in other areas of Lafayette and surrounding communities.
Requests for comment from PG were not immediately returned.
Meanwhile, on Monday attorneys working for PG filed new court documents in the company's criminal probation case in federal court. Earlier this month, the company told the judge the company had identified 10 fires that had burned 10 acres or more "that its equipment may have contributed to igniting."
The new court filing said it also believed a June 25 fire in Monterey County, the Lonoak Fire, may have been caused by its equipment. That brush fire burned 2,546 acres in about 24 hours, but no structures were destroyed.
PG said that while no cause of the fire has been determined, the company believes a bird contacted a conductor causing a fault and sending the conductor to the ground.
The latest reports come on the heels of PG reporting a malfunction on a transmission tower near the origin point of the massive Kincade Fire in Sonoma County moments before the blaze began on Burned Mountain.
The company further tied itself to that fire Monday in its court filing.
"In addition, since its initial submission, PG has identified other ignitions that resulted in a fire greater than 10 acres to which its equipment may have contributed," the company's lawyers wrote. "One of these is the Kincade Fire."
The utility made its report to state regulators Thursday, saying it became aware of an outage about 9:20 p.m. Wednesday on a 230,000-volt transmission line.
The report pegged the incident location as near Kincade Road and Burned Mountain Road, which is where state officials say the fire started minutes later.
The company has told The Chronicle that transmission lines of that voltage were left on when the fire started, even though PG turned off electricity to lower-voltage distribution lines in the area because of high fire danger.
The company has said the decision was made to keep the transmission lines on in that location because they didn't believe winds would be strong enough to affect more robust transmission infrastructure.
On Thursday morning, a PG employee patrolling the company's Geysers #9 Lakeville transmission line saw that the state's Cal Fire agency had taped off the area around Tower 001/006, according to that report. Cal Fire personnel showed the employee "what appeared to be a broken jumper on the same tower," the report said.
The tower in question had been inspected earlier this year as part of PG's enhanced effort to examine the condition of its equipment in high-fire threat areas. PG inspected more than 750,000 power poles and found thousands of problems, but the company has claimed that all of the highest-priority issues it unearthed were "repaired or made safe."
The cause of the Kincade Fire is under investigation, and PG said the information it reported to the utilities commission is preliminary.
Bill Johnson, CEO of the utility's parent PG Corp., told reporters Thursday that the tower in question is 43 years old, "which is pretty common in the industry" and "not an old tower." PG inspected the equipment four times in the last two years, including by climbing and drone this year, Johnson said.
During this year's inspections, crews found some minor problems but all of them were fixed, except for some new painting that needed to be done, Johnson said.
"It appears to have been in excellent condition, recently inspected," he said.
Sources familiar with the inspection told The Chronicle that four workers visited the transmission tower on Feb. 7 and two climbed the structure, photographing every piece of equipment. A foreman on the ground reviewed the photos and another worker flew a drone and took photographs with that tool.
Disasters and controversies have embroiled the San Francisco company for the better part of a decade. They include a deadly 2010 natural gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno and a series of horrific and record-setting wildfires in 2017 and 2018 that drove PG into bankruptcy protection in January.
The company issued an electrical incident report last year shortly after one of its transmission towers failed near Pulga and caused the deadly Camp Fire.
PG is under enormous legal and financial pressure not to let its equipment spark more fires. U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup, who is overseeing the company's probation stemming from the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion, has shown a keen interest in the company's role in starting fires. And investors who are backing the company's official plan to exit bankruptcy have given themselves the right to yank their financing in case fires linked to PG equipment damage more than 500 structures.
Staff writer J.D. Morris contributed to this report.
Matthias Gafni is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: matthias.gafni@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mgafni
